Reflections of early childhood teachers' knowledge and attitude levels towards their science education practices

The purpose of the study was to examine early childhood teachers' science knowledge and attitudes levels towards science education, and science practices. This study used explanatory sequential design incorporating two phases: a quantitative and qualitative. In the first phase "Survey of Science Practices", "Early Childhood Teachers' Attitudes towards Science Scale", and "Achievement Test on Scientific Concepts" were applied to early childhood teachers working in state schools in Pendik, Kartal and Maltepe districts of Istanbul during the fall semester of 2019-2020 academic year. In the second phase, two volunteer teacher who were regularly applying science activities from both ends of the score distribution according to scale and test results were selected for furher investigation. Two participant teachers were interviewed and observed during science activities. Descriptive analysis used in the analysis of quantitative data obtained from the research, content analysis, and thematic analysis used in the analysis of qualitative data. It was concluded that the science knowledge and attitudes levels of teachers were related to; their choice of science subjects, the frequency of science activities, the resources they used, using plans from other sources without further inquring the subject, efforts to ensure active participation of children, making accurate scientific explanations about the subjects, teaching scientific process skills, and the teaching methods used. However, it has observed that both teachers limited their science activities to experiment and observation, and limited observing to paying attention, by using demonstration techniques in experiments and, often using teacher centered methods in which children were passive.